Thursday, May 26, 2016

At SEIU’s 2016
convention in Detroit, SEIU members raised concerns about union democracy inside
SEIU… which were quickly quashed by a committee headed by members of SEIU’s International Executive Board.

Here’s what
happened.

SEIU Local 1021 -- which represents 45,000
public-sector workers in Northern California -- presented a convention resolution
that would have given rank-and-file union members a say in determining SEIU’s endorsement
of US presidential candidates instead of simply allowing SEIU’s International
Executive Board (IEB) to make the decision.

Fearful that the powerful labor union could
soon endorse Hillary Clinton, supporters of Vermont Senator have petitioned top
leaders to hold off on endorsing a candidate.

In another sign of discontent, SEIU Local 1984 -- which represents public-sector workers in the state of New Hampshire -- announced its endorsement of Sanders just two days after SEIU International endorsed Clinton ("New Hampshire SEIU Branch Backs Sanders”).

This recent
history appears to be what caused SEIU Local 1021 to propose “Resolution 223”
to the SEIU convention in Detroit, which ended earlier this week. The
resolution reads in part as follows (full copy is below):

Clinton at SEIU's 2016 Convention in Detroit

Whereas: the democratic tradition in our nation and
in our labor movement is founded on the idea that every person, every voice,
every voter has a right to be heard; and…

Whereas: there is a crisis in government and voting
with many feeling that the system is rigged, that their vote does not count and
their voices not heard in the electoral process; and…

Whereas: the institution of the union must trust
and engage the rank and file to discuss, debate and vote on their endorsement
recommendation for President of the United State; and

Whereas: the union must demonstrate to the
candidates for President of the United States the importance of being
accountable to working people and our families by creating a process for
endorsement for President of the United States that is democratic, inclusive,
and accountable to the rank-and-file;

Therefore
be it resolved that: SEIU International
will develop a direct system of voting where all members may cast a vote for
their preferred candidate for President of the United States using technology
or another tool for vote casting and counting; and

Therefore
be it further resolved that: the
SEIU International will develop a committee of members from throughout the
country to create an endorsement process and timeline, and the necessary
infrastructure for direct member feedback on issues and endorsements for the
President of United States and a process for the 2020 election cycle.

So what
happened to the resolution?

It never saw
the light of day.

Under SEIU’s
rules, only resolutions approved by a small committee of SEIU officials are permitted
onto the convention floor for debate and voting by delegates.

In this
case, SEIU’s 19-person “Resolutions Committee” -- headed by SEIU IEB member Hector
“AirBnB” Figueroa and including IEB members Meg
Niemi and Marge
Faville Robinson-- refused to send the resolution to the convention
floor and instead “referred” it to the IEB for future discussion.

Tuesday, May 24, 2016

For months, SEIU-UHW President Dave Regan reportedly has been sharpening
his knives in an effort to challenge Mary
Kay Henry during SEIU’s officer elections at its International Convention,
which concluded today in Detroit.

So what
happened?

In the end, Mary
Kay Henry appears to have delivered another damaging blow to Regan and SEIU-UHW... who reportedly left the convention even more marginalized than when they landed
in Detroit just a handful of days earlier.

Here’s what
Tasty’s sources say.

On the
convention floor, Mary Kay Henry campaigned to win delegates' support to elect her “leadership
team,” which was called “Henry Team 2016,” to a four-year term of office. Henry nominated
a full slate of candidates for all of SEIU’s officer positions, including the president,
secretary-treasurer, 7 executive vice presidents, and every seat on the
International Executive Board.

In the run-up
to the voting process, Henry circulated promo materials demonstrating that she’d
already locked up the support of virtually every member of SEIU’s International
Executive Board as well as dozens and dozens of SEIU local unions
across the country.

Noticeably
absent from the list of her supporters, of course, were any representatives of
SEIU-UHW.

Immediately below is a pro-Henry
piece that reads in part as follows:

Brothers and Sisters,

For more than six years, Mary Kay Henry has
provided the vision, courage, and leadership our union needs to overcome the
greatest challenges we have ever faced.

Mary Kay has demonstrated the willingness to
make smart, tough decisions and the courage to act on them. She inspires us to
focus not on what is, but what could be. She has steered our union on a course
that has brought higher wages to millions of workers and new hope to millions
of current and future members…

We are proud to support the re-election of
Mary Kay Henry as our SEIU president, and to fight alongside her and her
leadership team on behalf of our 2 million members and all working families in
2016 and the years ahead.

In Solidarity,

In a
surprising twist, "Henry Team 2016" was prominently backed by Regan’s
erstwhile allies at 1199NY -- including its president George
Gresham, SEIU Executive Vice President Gerry
Hudson, and multiple other 1199NY officials.

Sources say Regan
was so marginalized and outmaneuvered that when the time came for delegates to
nominate and vote for candidates from the convention floor, Regan and SEIU-UHW’s
entire delegation stood up and walked out of the convention hall.

Here’s a
photo taken by one source soon after the SEIU-UHW delegation walked out of the
convention.

One source called SEIU-UHW “the stepchild of the Union” who “were reduced to nothing.” “What a shame, they weren’t mentioned once,” says the source.

Here are more
photos of propaganda that Mary Kay Henry’s supporters circulated at the convention.

What’s next
for Regan in his even more marginalized position?

Stay tuned!

The following are members of the SEIU International Executive Board who backed "Henry Team 2016."

Friday, May 20, 2016

On Sunday,
SEIU will begin a three-day convention in Detroit, Michigan where union leaders
will select SEIU’s officers and vote on a union-wide “program” for the next four
years.

As usual,
the convention will feature heavy doses of purple swagger and hoaky gimmicks
like exploding confetti cannons.

Take, for
example, the title for SEIU’s union-wide program for the next four years: the
“Unstoppable Program to Win for Working People” (UPWWP).

No joke.

Among other
giant steps forward for the working class, the UPWWP will boldly establish an
“SEIU Innovation Center” and a “21st Century Blueprint Committee.”

In case you’re
wondering, it’s apparently no longer necessary for workers to focus on things
like building rank-and-file organization, solidarity, and industry-wide power
to take on ever-more-powerful corporations.

Instead, “21st
century innovation” is the key to workers’ power.

SEIU’s
“Innovation Center” -- which sounds a lot like “The
Workers Lab,” the Silicon Valley-styled “business incubator” recently set
up by David
Rolf and other SEIU officials -- will “develop, manage and drive
experiments to create the next form of organization for working people,”
according to a conference resolution to be presented next week.

SEIU
officials are actively scouring the business practices of Apple, Google, and
the tech sector...

An image from the SEIU Convention floor

where Rolf believes SEIU will find “the next form of
organization for working people.”

On Sunday,
SEIU officials will distribute conference materials describing their
efforts to harness the power of smartphones and new technologies… and to “reverse
engineer all campaigns across the union to ensure that we get the best strategic
thinking possible.”

Along with 21st century innovation, convention-goers may be treated to some
old-school infighting among SEIU’s top officials.

Tasty hears that an anti-Mary Kay Henry faction headed by Gerry Hudson and Dave Regan has been sharpening its knives in the run-up to the
convention.

Prior to
SEIU’s convention in 2012, sources said Hudson
contemplated an effort to unseat Henry after she reportedly stripped him of
many responsibilities and also considered removing Hudson from her slate of
candidates. Hudson serves as one of six “Executive Vice Presidents,” the
union’s highest officers after its president and secretary-treasurer.

SEIU signage with "SEIU Unstoppable" logos

Hudson is a
former top official at SEIU 1199 New
York, where he retains the support of 1199NY President George
Gresham. In recent months, Gresham also has lent support to Regan in
his battles with Mary Kay Henry.

Could Hudson
and Regan mount a successful challenge to Henry?

Unlikely.

Henry
enjoys support from a majority of SEIU locals. Furthermore, her transfer of
60,000 long-term care workers out of Regan’s local and into SEIU Local 2015, which is run by
Henry’s ally Laphonza Butler, has
strengthened Henry’s hand on the convention floor.

Stay tuned
for more news about confetti cannons and other 21st century innovations
from the SEIU convention.

Friday, May 13, 2016

Last week,
SEIU-UHW laid off a number of staff just days after they petitioned the NLRB
for a government-supervised election to form a union, according to NLRB
records.

The staff
are employed by a nonprofit organization called “Good Health for California,” which was founded last year by SEIU-UHW’s
Dave Regan to enroll Californians in
the Affordable Care Act (a.k.a. “Obamacare”).

The
organization, with an annual budget of approximately $2 million, has more than
60 staff in Los Angeles, Fresno, Bakersfield, Stockton, the San Francisco Bay
Area, and Sacramento. Staffers include Organizers, Screeners, and Data Entry
Associates who run enrollment events to sign up Californians for Obamacare, which is called
“Covered California” in the Golden State.

Until
recently, the organization was headed by Rebecca
Hanson, a former SEIU staffer who recently left “Good Health for California”
to take another job at SEIU-UHW.

On May 2,
the staffers at “Good Health for California” submitted formal paperwork to the
NLRB requesting an election so they can join “United Staff Workers,” which
currently represents SEIU-UHW’s organizers, field representatives, researchers
and other staff.

On May 5 -- just three days later -- “Good Health for California” announced it was laying
off many of the staffers who requested the unionization election, according to Hunter
Pyle (the staff union’s attorney) and SEIU-UHW staffer Jared Mayhugh.

A May 5 e-mail sent by Pyle to the NLRB regarding the layoffs reads as follows:

The screener canvassers were notified today
that they will be released. I just got this information this afternoon that
they plan to lay them off.

Regan, who
has repeatedly teamed up with hospital CEOs to slash workers’ benefits, also apparently favors the union-busting tactics employed by his CEO buddies.

Regan is
already under investigation by the Contra Costa County District Attorney’s
office for his allegedly violent assault against a process server. He will now likely find himself
under the crosshairs of the NLRB for violating workers’ labor rights.

...and the contradictions grow even deeper.

It turns out
that "Good Health for California’s" formal business name is “Good Health Good
Jobs for California,” according to the California Secretary of State (see below).

Hmmm… I
guess when Diamond Dave used the term “Good Jobs” in the organization's title, he didn’t actually intend it to apply to the organization’ own (non-union and now fired) staff.

Wednesday, May 11, 2016

A source has
offered an interesting glimpse into last week’s three-day, closed-door arbitration
hearing against SEIU-UHW. The
hearing was triggered by a California
Hospital Associationlawsuit
alleging SEIU-UHW violated a secret partnership deal.

For six
months, Dave Regan has refused to
appear before an arbitrator.

Recently, however, a Sacramento Superior Court judge and an appeals court both ordered
Regan to stand before an arbitrator to face charges he violated the terms of his
secret
partnership deal with the California Hospital Association (CHA), including
the deal’s far-reaching gag
clause.

So… what
happened at last week’s arbitration hearing?

A source has
provided a 30-page document with the questions that SEIU-UHW’s attorneys posed
during their cross-examination of CHA CEO Duane
Dauner, who also testified at the hearing.

The
document, entitled “Dauner Cross-Examination Outline,” offers insights into the
clandestine maneuvers by Regan’s rivals at SEIU, along with the shifting
loyalties of his former best buddy, CEO Duane Dauner.

Under the
partnership deal -- memorialized in a written contract called the “Code of
Conduct” -- SEIU-UHW and the CHA set up a labor-management committee (LMC) that
they named “Caring for Californians” (CFC). The LMC, which was jointly
controlled by the two partnering organizations, planned to introduce a
statewide ballot initiative to raise billions of Medicaid revenues to deposit
into the coffers of California hospitals.

Then, in the
summer of 2015, Dauner reportedly began clandestine discussions with Regan’s
rivals and decided to dump Regan and instead form a partnership with SEIU California State Council, the California Teachers Association, and
the California Medical Association.

CHA's Duane Dauner

The CHA
joined these organizations -- known as the “ABC Coalition” -- to file an
alternative ballot initiative that submarined Regan’s scheme to corral $6
billion in taxpayer funding for hospitals.

(For discussion of the organizations’ motives in
undermining Regan’s initiative, see this
post.)

Regan’s
simmering anger at Dauner and Regan's Purple Palace rivals is abundantly evident in the
questions that SEIU-UHW attorneys fired at Dauner as he sat on the witness
stand last week.

SEIU-UHW’s attorneys repeatedly sought to uncover details about Dauner’s contacts and
conversations with Laphonza Butler
(President of the SEIU California State Council and a close ally of SEIU
President Mary Kay Henry), John Youngdahl (Executive Director of
the SEIU California State Council), the California Teachers Association, and
others. Here are excerpts from the document below:

Who are the members of the ABC Coalition?

Who is your contact person for each
organization?

Who is your primary contact at the ABC
Coalition?

Who is John Youngdahl? (SEIU State Council
Executive Director)?

When did you first meet with John Youngdahl
regarding the ABC Coalition?

How many times did you meet in person
regarding the ABC Coalition?

Where did you meet?

Who else was present?

What was discussed?

Isn’t it true that the subject of the
discussions was how to construct an alternative

SEIU's Mary Kay Henry and Laphonza Butler

initiative?

Isn’t it true that as part of the agreement
outlined above the California Hospital Association made a $25 million
commitment to the ABC Coalition?

And when David Regan asked you for a copy of
the Agreement – you refused to give it to him, didn’t you?

And on December 3, you told David Regan that
you would be supporting the ABC Coalition initiative – didn’t you?

How many e-mails did you exchange regarding
the ABC Coalition?

Who else was on the e-mail chain?

What was discussed?

How many times did you speak on the phone
regarding the ABC Coalition?

Contacts with Laphonza Butler, President of
SEIU United Long-Term Workers

The 30-page
document also confirms the money-for-members transaction that Regan inked with
hospital CEOs, including the exchange of 30,000 non-union members for billions in new Medicaid revenues.

And it
confirms that Regan and other SEIU-UHW officials (including Arianna
Jimenez) attended secret meetings with hospital execs at luxury hotels in
California, including the Fairmont
Grand Del Mar in San Diego... where the cheapest room costs $545 a night.
(pp. 6-7)

Friday, May 6, 2016

SEIU-UHW’s Dave Regan is in the midst of a
three-day arbitration hearing in Emeryville, Calif., where attorneys from the California Hospital Association (CHA) are
questioning him over SEIU-UHW’s alleged violations of their secret partnership
deal and a gag
clause.

The hearing,
which is taking place at the Courtyard Marriott Hotel in Emeryville, began May
5 and is scheduled to conclude tomorrow afternoon, May 7. Both Regan and CHA
CEO Duane Dauner are testifying at
the hearing, which is close to the public.

According to Tasty's sources, the testimony is offering jaw-dropping details about SEIU-UHW’s intimate
relationship with hospital CEOs. For example…

Regan met
secretly with hospital CEOs at fancy hotels across California including a July
10, 2015 meeting at the Fairmont Grand
Del Mar in San Diego, Calif., where the cheapest room costs $545 a night … and
the Villa Brisa Suite will set you back $5,000 a night.

During the
summer of 2015, Dauner began discussions with Regan’s opponents, which
ultimately led him to dump Regan so he could ink an alternative deal. Testimony described Dauner’s contacts with Jon Youngdahl (Executive Director of the SEIU California State
Council), Laphonza Butler (President of SEIU California State Council), Dustin Corcoran (CEO of the California Medical Association), and
leaders of the California Teachers Association. Butler is a close ally of SEIU President Mary Kay Henry.

During the
summer and fall of 2015, Dauner had multiple phone conversations with California Gov. Jerry Brown about plans for ballot initiatives to pour billions more dollars into hospital industry coffers.

The
arbitration hearing, now under way in Emeryville, was ordered by a Superior
Court judge. After

Regan met with hospital CEOs at the Fairmont Grand del Mar

the CHA first requested arbitration to deal with SEIU-UHW’s
multiple alleged violations of their secret partnership deal, Regan simply refused to
show up.

After SEIU
officials’ backroom lap dance with Airbnb execs was abruptly interrupted, Randy Shaw of “Beyond Chron” penned a piece
that examines the profiteering of former SEIU and Obama administration officials.

SEIU
President Emeritus Andy Stern, for
example, is involved in at least three for-profit ventures... including a
biowarfare pharmaceutical company owned by his billionaire patron, Ron Perelman, the 78th richest person in the world.

In addition, Stern recently became a high-paid consultant for
Airbnb, which ostensibly hired him to grease the wheels inside the Purple
Palace. Stern was reportedly helping Airbnb reach a deal with SEIU that critics say would have given the $25.5 billion company political cover for driving up housing costs, intensifying gentrification, and undercutting hotel workers' jobs.

What do Andy
Stern, Jon Carson, David Plouffe, and Jim Messina all have in common? Each
played key roles in Barack Obama’s campaigns promoting “Change We Can Believe
In” and now work for for-profit corporations or conservative candidates.

Why have these and others like former SEIU
staffer Christopher Nulty (now at
Airbnb) and former NextGen organizer Chris Lehane (also at Airbnb) shifted
their energies from working for progressive change in the public sector to
private pursuits?

SEIU's Christopher Nulty

Who’s Nulty?

He was SEIU President Mary Kay Henry’s
speechwriter and Chief Communications Aide, as described in this recent
post. He left SEIU to take jobs at Yahoo
and Airbnb, where he currently serves
as Airbnb’s Public Affairs Lead for the eastern half of North America.

Shaw goes on
to deliver a smackdown of Stern, whom he calls “the worst stereotype of the
fast buck entrepreneur.”

Larry Cohen v Andy Stern

Let’s start with the most obvious contrast,
that of the post-retirement actions of two leading union supporters of Obama in
2008: Larry Cohen, former head of
the Communication Workers of America,
and Andy Stern, who left SEIU in 2010.

Since leaving CWA, Cohen has continued to
work for progressive change. Cohen probably did more than anyone else to build
labor support for the Bernie Sanders campaign, indirectly moving Clinton and
the Democratic Party to the left on trade and other issues of concern to
working people.

Stern, in contrast, has gone from
representing Big Pharma to his recent ill-conceived plan to forge a deal
between SEIU and Airbnb on unionizing maids that bypassed UNITE HERE (and
violated the jurisdictional agreement between the two unions). He’s become the
worst stereotype of the fast buck entrepreneur…

Stern was the labor official most passionate
about Barack Obama in 2008. Yet today it almost seems unbelievable that he was
even part of the labor movement.

Tuesday, May 3, 2016

Here’s the
latest on SEIU-UHW’s legal battles with its erstwhile corporate partners at the
California Hospital Association
(CHA).

In recent
months, the two organizations filed dueling lawsuits after their secret partnership
deal exploded in flames.

Under the
defunct partnership deal, SEIU-UHW President Dave
Regan agreed to deliver $6 billion in public Medicaid funds to hospital
CEOs in exchange for the right to unionize up to 60,000 California hospital
workers without employer opposition.

Regan also agreed
to help hospital bosses by forcing workers into cheap labor contracts and silencing
them with a “gag
clause” that blocks workers from filing complaints against hospital corporations for patient care violations.

Who’s
winning the dueling lawsuits?

The CHA.

In mid-March,
a Sacramento Superior Court judge ruled in favor of a CHA lawsuit that seeks
to force SEIU-UHW into binding arbitration over its alleged violations of the
secret “gag clause.”

SEIU-UHW, after
losing in Superior Court, then appealed the judge’s decision to the California Court
of Appeal (Third Appellate District) on April 6.

Just two days later, however,
the appeals court “summarily denied” SEIU-UHW’s appeal. (See a copy of the
Appeal Court’s order below.)

What happens
now?

An
arbitrator will conduct hearings on SEIU-UHW’s alleged violations of the partnership deal and will then issue a binding decision. The arbitrator’s
hearings -- which are private -- apparently began on April 13.

Meanwhile, the
CHA is trying to gain an upper hand over a lawsuit
filed by SEIU-UHW in Sacramento Superior Court in November. In February, Regan became so worried about the
viability of his lawsuit that he unilaterally dropped the suit… only to re-file
it days later in Los Angeles, some 500 miles away, in an apparent game of legal
hide n’ seek.

On May 20, a
Los Angeles judge will hear CHA’s request to send Regan’s lawsuit back to

Sacramento, where it would be handled by the same judge who already ruled against
SEIU-UHW on the first lawsuit.

Finally, there
are the multiple civil and criminal actions connected to Regan’s alleged
violent assault on a process server who tried to deliver CHA court documents to
Regan’s home in a wealthy suburb of the San Francisco Bay Area.

In both February
and March, a Contra Costa County Superior Court judge issued temporary
restraining orders against Regan. Just two weeks ago, the judge issued yet another
legal order -- a “restraining order for civil harassment” against Regan, which
will last for a lengthier period of time.

As far as
the criminal investigation into Regan, the Contra Costa District
Attorney’s Office is continuing its review to determine whether it will file
criminal charges against him.

Earlier, Tasty
published the victim’s
jaw-dropping account of Regan’s assault… which includes photos of the
process server’s bruised body resulting from Regan’s kicks to his body and punches
to the head.

Here's a copy of the California Court of Appeals decision denying Regan's recent appeal of a judge's decision regarding his secret partnership deal with the California Hospital Association.

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